how to hide WC from hallway's sight

4 years ago

Dear Houzzers,

I am planning a duplex on floor 23 and 22 for my family of 4 and 1 maid.

Will appreciate very much for your kind advices on the followings:

1/ General comments on this floor plan. Please identify possible mistakes which can be avoided at this planning stage.

2/ I try to avoid direct sight from hallway into the toilet and vanity. So here there are 03 options for WC1. Can you please advice which one is the best and if there is any other better layout for this WC1 ?
3/ I am wondering whether to keep the door to the living room as this floor plan or to remove it ? I feel it may obstruct the traffic ? or is it ok to keep this ? What I have in mind this duplex will be following the traditional style so it may be closed space ?

Thank you very much for your help.
Hung from Viet Nam

Featured Answer

Jonathan

4 years ago

I am surprised no one else has chimed into this discussion so I am bumping it.
Separately I still think that the corner where the master en-suite is now could accommodate two bathrooms. To make this possible I would make the children’s bedrooms smaller and change the master suite from two windows to three (making it thinner but longer) in order to create more bathroom space.

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Comments (19)

Jonathan
4 years ago
Congratulations on what will be an impressive apartment.
I had a couple of questions:
Is this an empty unit with no walls? Am I right in thinking the black boxes are services that can’t be moved?
Is the staircase already there? Is it possible to redesign the staircase so that it is not a barrier to the porch and does not waste space on floor 22?
Do you have outside space beyond the porch? If so should the principal reception be next to the porch?
Why does son 1 have a bigger bedroom? And should those two bedrooms have a dedicated bathroom?
Why does the guest room have no window but the laundry does?
Why don’t guests have their own ensuite?
Should you plan some storage near the main entrance for coats?
The kitchen seems to have bar seating but it’s not very big and it is in the corridor and opposite the living room doors.... this seems to be a pinch point and needs reconsidering.
Is the dining room big enough? If you entertain at home this may need more space.
Do you need doors on the dining room? As it is likely the tidiest of spaces you don’t need to hide it.
Had you considered employing a concept planner to revisit the plan for you?
Jonathan
4 years ago
Also son 1 has as much wardrobe space as the parents.... does the master bedroom need more storage?
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Duong Hung
Original Author
4 years ago
Dear Jonathan,

I need to thank you very much indeed for your valuable and wonderful advice. I want to feedback and send more pictures for you to help but something went wrong with my pc, it won't see your post (I can only see it on my phone so typing is painful). I will explore how to upload photos and answer all of your questions very soon. In the meantime, thank you very much indeed. Hung
Duong Hung
Original Author
4 years ago
current status of floor 22 and 23
Duong Hung
Original Author
4 years ago
floor 23
Duong Hung
Original Author
4 years ago
floor 22
Duong Hung
Original Author
4 years ago
Dear Jonathan,

As you can see the above pictures, some of your questions have been answered. the black boxes are concrete columns.
What I want from the staircase is that it will connect lights from floor 22 to 23 and vice versa. How about other ideas for the staircase?
Outside the porch is the swimming pool for public. I am not allowed to open main entrance from porch.
My older son 16 yrs wants WIC for his clothes but younger one 10 yrs wants smaller room for not being scared of ghost :) we can't have bathroom for them because there is no waste water pipes there.
Duong Hung
Original Author
4 years ago
I think laundry room need air to dry that why it is next to window but guest room you are right, will need more light, i I don't know how to go about that. Guest can't have ensuite because this floor don't have enough space and i think very few time guests stay.
Yes, the entrance have some storage but I still few short because I think will need more space for shoes but don't know how to.
Totally agree with you about the shortcoming of kitchen island opposite to living room door creates traffic crowded. Please advise how to solve this problem if possible. thank you.
Duong Hung
Original Author
4 years ago
You are right the dining room is small but I don't know how to make it bigger because one end is limited by worship room, the other is by hallway. what door to dinning room you mentioned? I think a concept planner is excellent and will think about this. Many thanks indeed again for your valuable time putting to answer my questions. Hung
Jonathan
4 years ago
What a shame you can’t access the porch. Perhaps you can have a window instead.
And your younger boy should be assured that ghosts can’t float above the 8th floor.
Duong Hung
Original Author
4 years ago
:) I will tell him about this. I can access the porch yes and have the door and window there as you can see. but it won't be the main entrance.
Jonathan
4 years ago
The more I think about this plan the more I think you need to challenge your architect or get creative input elsewhere to instruct your architect.
I think there is a way of reducing the size of the children’s bedrooms a little, changing the proportions of the main bedroom to have more wardrobe space and adding a bathroom near the children’s bedrooms.
I also think that a different staircase could take up less room.
Replanning the kitchen would be the most important thing in my opinion. From a safety point of view this layout would not be allowed in the UK because most fires start in a kitchen and there is no way of isolating the kitchen meaning there is no escape from floor 22 without going past the kitchen.
I also think you need to check floor 22 measurements as it looks like the plan goes under the pool.
Duong Hung
Original Author
4 years ago
Yes, you are very right to point out safety issue relating to the kitchen layout. Thank you very much for the that. I will take this seriously to consider, one escape is thru main entrance, the other is to the porch and swimming pool and there is a back door escape to floor 22 as well. But this must be taken into account seriously.
The current bathroom for children as you pointed out is correct, it will be much better if they have bathroom near by but there is no waste water pipes anywhere near their room, that is the limitation I guess difficult to overcome.
The staircase can be smaller but my priority will be for allowing light and connecting two floors together.
For the wardrobe in master bedroom, it can be more to be better but i reserved some places for putting drap and warm clothes in other scattered places in the apartment.
I really appreciate your valuable time considering my floor plan and provide a lot of comments which really alert and warning me to find out solutions. Hope to receive more of your attention if that is possible.
Thank you again and be stronger in this situation of covid 19. Hung
PRO
OnePlan
4 years ago
Without full knowledge of the local build code it’s tricky for a pro to give advice - as obvs we are not ‘just someone on the internet ‘ so we have to stand by our advice, giving it to the best of our knowledge etc etc.
I agree that this size of a project needs a pro on board though . Should be part of the budget . It’s too big a job to just wing it.
Duong Hung
Original Author
4 years ago
Thank you Jonathan again for your interest in this project and provided valuable comments. Due to upload problems, I posted this in houzz internet and in houzz mobile phone apps. From both I received several ideas which I consider very carefully.

I don't know how we can have another bathroom for children taken into account limitation of waste water pipes over there (there is no waste water pipes available there) and on the other side, I want to make big en suite bathroom in master bedroom. This will not be possible to address two request at the same time given limited space available.

Any idea with draft drawing or sketches will be much appreciated if that's possible.

thank you very much indeed.

Hung
Jonathan
4 years ago
I still think that by making the master bedroom longer and thinner you can create room for a second bathroom for the children that does not cross the entrance foyer and keeps the sleep area completely separate from the entertaining areas.
Duong Hung
Original Author
4 years ago
Dear Jonathan, it's a great concept. I will learn it carefully and discuss with my architect. The thing at this moment is the big column in the son 1 bedroom. It will make his room very small. But it's useful to think more about this concrete suggest. Many thanks indeed. Hung
Duong Hung
Original Author
4 years ago
One more thing if I may ask is what you think about staircase that smaller but still connects two floors and allow maximum light ? Can you help with drawing idea of this ? many thanks. Hung